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The town I was born in is
very small. There was a doll store

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that when I was little, I
stopped every day admiring them on the Crystal

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sideboard. They were dolls of a
large size, with their long hair,

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which I could not have because their
cost was high. They were semi-

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real right to the owner of that
store A strange situation happened to him.

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In order to get those dolls,
it was necessary for Don Jacinto to go

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to the city, which was about
five hours by truck. In order to

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reach or leave the village, it
was necessary to take the only road that

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there was the cursed road, as
many said to him, because for the

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same reason that the fog filled the
road and on the other side there was

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a deep ravine. There were often
accidents in which many people had died and

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were to be expected, because if
a bus or a car fell into the

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ravine, it was very difficult to
rescue people, because in the lower part

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a river ran that, in the
rainy season, became dangerous, so sometimes

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you could see the remains of the
cars that remained below. On one occasion

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there was a truck that came to
the village for the patron saintly feasts of

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the Virgin of the Rosary. They
had been organized among several surrounding villages to

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go to the holidays. No one
knew what happened, but the bus broke

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down with all the passengers inside say
those who lived in the houses closest to

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the road that the cries of despair
were heard when the truck fell into the

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void as well as the crying of
the children. It was a terrible tragedy

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that time could not cure. From
that time on, ghostly apparitions began to

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become more and more frequent because they
said that souls appeared on the road looking

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for the way to achieve their peace, or even said that those spirits had

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behaviors, as if they still thought
they were alive. Those pitiful souls caused

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other drivers to get so scared that
they would get off the road and hit

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the hill and then fall into the
deep ravine. That was why he had

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received that name. Many people were
afraid to leave town, because they did

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not know if they would return alive. Only Don Jacinto did so very often.

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That' s why he had so
many customers in his shop, because

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he not only sold dolls, but
clothes for lady and gentleman shoes domestic goods.

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It was so popular that people from
other villages came to buy what it

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sold, as it was easier to
do so without risking. So much so,

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everyone in the village was surprised that
Don Jacinto had not had an accident,

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especially because of the frequency with which
he was traveling. At least twice

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a month, while other people,
like my family, had never left town.

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We didn' t have to go
to other towns or the city.

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That' s why we' d
rather not risk it. On one occasion

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of the many times Don Jacinto left
town, it took longer than expected to

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return. He was leaving in a
big van he had and returning with the

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cabin full of merchandise. I remember
very well that I was starting to get

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dark when I heard a lot of
screams in the village, as the town

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had settled on the hill from the
part where I was, I had a

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vision for the whole village. I
saw when several people gathered around the temple.

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Obviously I couldn' t tell what
they were talking about. I just

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noticed an air of concern in the
environment. I stopped looking for the medicinal

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plants to go to the house.
My mom and dad were already aware of

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what happened. Don Jacinto had an
accident. It was not yet known how

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serious it was, but the worst
was feared, as it was well known

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that whoever suffered an accident on that
road lost his life. After a few

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minutes, my mom found out that
Don Jacinto had died on the Cursed Road.

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They found him on the side of
his truck. Apparently, he crashed

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into the hill and his chest was
pressed against the steering wheel, resulting in

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an instant death. But something inexplicable
happened. They said that Don Jacinto,

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after considering him dead from one moment
to the next, began to cough loudly.

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Everyone here got scared. One person
approached the lord put his ear into

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his heart. She suddenly realized she
was beating again. He was alive the

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next day. There was no talk
of anything other than Don Jacinto. It

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was the first time someone had an
accident on the cursed road and would come

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out alive to tell it, but
I had a strange feeling about Don Jacinto.

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My parents also heard them talking that
it had been a rather strange event.

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For a week, Don Jacinto didn' t go to work at his

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doll shop. Every time I came
from school. I was passing by the

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store because I wanted to see him, until one Monday I saw him behind

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the counter. I kept an eye
out through the Crystal sideboard. I pretended

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to see the dolls. The more
I saw was that man who had a

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different look. Don Jacinto looked at
me as he smiled in a disturbing way

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quickly. I walked away from the
place. I' d been able to

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see it and I didn' t
like it. What I perceived in him

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was as if he were another man, and Don Jacinto the real one was

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somewhere else I wasn' t the
only one who noticed the changes in the

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doll seller in the village started to
spread the rumor that Don Jacinto had strange

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behaviors because he left his house in
the morning and walked along the side of

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the road to return almost at dawn. It became a daily practice for him.

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Once I came from a schoolmate'
s house, we were doing a

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project that took us longer than we
thought, so it was night when I

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left her house it was late,
but in the village you could travel at

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any time without anything bad happening.
It was a very quiet and safe place.

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In the distance, I saw Don
Jacinto, walking towards the outskirts.

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I looked everywhere. The streets were
empty without much thought. I left following

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him without him noticing. I had
the doubt that I went to the road

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every night. I stayed a certain
distance from him so he wouldn' t

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realize I was following him. As
Don Jacinn approached the place where the accidents

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happened, I began to hear sounds
of people treading the gravel of the place.

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I turned my head without being able
to see anyone. At the same

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time murmurs began to be heard as
if there were people present in the place

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there was no one. I began
to feel fear fear of being discovered not

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only by Don Jacinto, but by
the spirits in that place. I tried

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to stay still behind the bush I
was in. I lost sight of Don

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Jacinto, but I no longer wanted
to move from where I was. I

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began to hear cries and cries,
as if the spirits of dead people had

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woken up. It was gloomy to
realize that those spirits were detained in that

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place and that their souls suffered for
the abrupt manner in which they died.

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Suddenly everything was completely silent. It
was a silence that didn' t give

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me any peace of mind. On
the contrary, it was disturbing and more,

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when I saw Don Jacinto coming back, Don Jacinto left without seeing me

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going back to town. I stayed
for a few more minutes to get out

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of that creepy place. When I
thought Don Jacinto was far away, I

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walked quickly, looking all the time
back, as I had the feeling that

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those spirits could realize my presence.
I didn' t see Don Jacinto anymore.

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I thought he went home. Passing
through the main street, I saw

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that in his tent there was a
light moving from one place to the other.

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I was afraid, but I couldn' t resist seeing who it was.

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It was he who brought a lamp
by hand and walked quickly in his

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tent from the place where I was. I could only see the dolls and

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the light that moved. I didn' t really know what I was doing,

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but I decided to leave the place. It was quite late, but

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before I left I saw something frightening. One of the dolls opened and closed

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her eyes. I got so scared, I went back. At the same

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time I stumbled upon something and fell, causing it to make noise without waiting

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any longer. I ran out of
the place because I didn' t want

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Don Jacinto to realize it was me
and then have some sort of reprisal.

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I got suffocated to my house.
I had run several streets without stopping.

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When I arrived, my parents were
already worried. I got in turning out.

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I locked the door in one blow. My scared parents asked me what

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was happening to me. I told
you about Don Jacinto. That gentleman has

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strange customs. He wasn' t
the same man he knew. My mom

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came up with me, asked me
to calm down, gave me a tea

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to relax and tell her everything I
had seen at the end of my story.

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She also told my father and I
that this person was no longer Don

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Jacinto. After the accident and the
apparent death he had, someone else returned

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to his body. In the village, everyone began to realize the changes that

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arose in Don Jacinto, especially at
night every day he went out for a

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walk on every occasion his night walk
was on the banks of the Cursed Road.

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Very soon the rumors about what Don
Jacinto was doing came to the ears

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of all the villagers saying that he
had made a pact with the Devil for

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that he had forgiven his life,
as he was the only one who had

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survived an accident. There, since
that night I followed Don Jacinto, I

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never went back to his doll shop, but I couldn' t keep up

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with the doubt of what I saw
really intrigued by what was going on in

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that place. One night I went
back to the store, asked one of

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my brothers to come with me because
I was afraid to do it alone.

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He went with me out of curiosity, as in explaining what happened, he

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immediately told me he was lying.
It was almost ten o' clock at

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night when we arrived at Don Jacinto' s shop. To our luck,

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he was inside. We stayed behind
a tree in front of his shop.

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From that place it was possible to
see into the tent. It wasn'

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t long before we saw that the
man was taking one of the dolls out

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of the stand, putting it on
the counter and sitting in front of it.

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From the place where we met,
it was almost impossible to see what

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was going on inside we crossed the
main street cautiously and stayed behind the wall

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of the store. From there we
could see better. Apparently, Don Jacinto

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was talking to his wrist. He
moved his hands as if he were talking

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to a person, while the wrist
moved his head as if he were nodding.

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I didn' t want to stay
any longer. I told my brother

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to leave the place, but he
wanted to stay longer because he didn'

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t understand what was going on with
that gentleman. But I didn' t

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want the Jalé from the shirt so
we could run away from that place.

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My brother didn' t resist anymore. We crossed the street to return to

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our house. When we were on
our way back, we saw a man

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standing on the corner of a street. I told my brother it was best

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to surround. I didn' t
trust the man on the corner. From

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there I couldn' t tell who
I was. We' d rather go

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on another course. That meant we' d walk more, but I didn

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' t care. As he turned
the corner of the next street, there

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he was, was Don Jacinto standing. Seeing us with the other eyes wide

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open, the man gave a sinister
smile and went straight to my brother.

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He grabbed him by the hand and
took him away. I held my brother

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tight to keep that man from taking
him, but it was impossible. The

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lord had an enormous force against which
I could not fight. I ran to

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my house to tell my parents what
was going on. Suffocated almost airless.

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I stopped for a moment, begged
him to go for my brother. My

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dad spoke to his brother and asked
him to accompany him. Other neighbors noticed

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and went with him. They went
to Don Jacinto' s house. I

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wanted to go with them, but
my mom wouldn' t let me.

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He told me it was to put
me in danger crying. I begged him

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to go with me. My mom
didn' t think about it anymore She

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left my brothers in charge with the
neighbor and we went after them. Several

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men were knocking on the door of
Don jans Cinto' s house came out

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Doña Margarita, his wife. She
told them she wasn' t there.

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The safest thing was that he was
on the Cursed Road. It was the

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place I went every night. Not
for a minute. The men headed that

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way, but Doña Margarita told them
to take that man down because he was

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not her real husband. He had
become an evil entity. She lifted her

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skirt to show one of her legs. She had a long wound as if

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she had been hurt with a knife. The men came out more enraged from

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the village and headed towards the road
in the distance I came to distinguish my

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brother' s crying and screaming.
It didn' t take us long to

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be close to Don Jacinto or whoever
he was, but before we got where

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they were, we started to hear
voices as if many people were gathered in

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the same place, but we didn' t see anyone, as well as

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the footsteps of many people. I
saw clearly how the gravel moved on the

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floor as if people were walking on
the small stones. Lament began to be

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heard. They were disturbing laments that
were afraid to keep walking. Even several

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men stopped. They told my dad
that it was best to leave that cursed

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place, because they too put his
life at risk. My father told them

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that if they didn' t want
to go with him, he wouldn'

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t force them, but he was
going to go after his son. I

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wouldn' t give that man a
chance to hurt him. The villagers didn

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' t come back. They followed
my dad to the front. Their fear

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was evident because they looked everywhere as
if waiting for someone to come out suddenly

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and hurt them. There was a
time when Don Jacinto stopped, my brother

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was scared to death. He said
a few words that my mom didn'

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t understand. He didn' t
want to communicate with us either. Without

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being able to understand him, he
approached the side of the road, holding

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my brother tightly. We' re
all frozen. We knew what it meant

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if he threw himself at my brother, we would never see him again in

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an act of despair. My dad
approached the two of us. That'

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s when I heard my mom'
s scream asking my dad to stop because

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he was going to jump over the
cliff. It was horrible to see Don

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Jacinto' s face. His gaze
was dark and his smile sinister. Besides,

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as he dressed completely in black,
he looked like a demon. When

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my dad was very close to him, he took my brother by the arm

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and Don Jacinto fell into the void. There was one detail I didn'

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t want to overlook. The moment
the man fell into the void, a

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horrible roar was heard. No one
knew it was or where it came from.

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Also the dogs of the village began
to hunt in a sad way,

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as if they had the ability to
realize what was happening. That' s

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where all the howls came. Those
of us who were present were shocked by

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what happened. We didn' t
give credit to what was going on in

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that place. The whole town came
together to ask the authorities to close the

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road. Being very dangerous, they
were told how many people had died there.

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He was ordered to make another alternate
route that was less dangerous and over

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time, the cursed road was forgotten. Only the people who realized what happened

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didn' t forget it. All
the people have knowledge of what happened and

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are afraid of and respect for that
place. Doña Margarita, when she was

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calmer, told my parents all the
barbarities Don Jacinto did to her. She

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from the beginning realized that this man
was no longer her husband, because he

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became a despicable being. He even
thought that what lived in his being was

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the same demon. Every year,
during the patron saintly feasts of the Virgin

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of Sorrows, a pilgrimage is made
to the cursed road to keep the spirits

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who were trapped calm. My brother
at first after what happened, he was

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sick with a fever. It was
necessary for my parents to take him to

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the doctor. He gave her a
nerve treatment, but it wasn' t

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enough. He had to be taken
to a psychiatrist, because it was an

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event that marked him. Every year, when it is the day Don Jacinto

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died for the second time, dogs
howl painfully as if their spirit was wandering

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nearby. Story written and adapted by
Adriana Cuevas uno